1. Winchester was both the royal and the ecclesiastical
center of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Many of the kings of
Wessex (and later the kings of England), including Alfred the Great, employed
the bishops as royal advisors. What do the tombs
and memorials in Winchester Cathedral reveal about this church and state
relationship? What does the medieval layout of the town itself suggest
about the relative power of church and state?

2. The “Round Table of King Arthur” that hangs in the
Great Hall at Winchester Castle illustrates the ways British monarchs used
historical myth and symbol to maintain their rule. Discuss.
What do historians surmise about its origins and its decorations?
What monarchs are associated with the table and why?

Suggested
Readings:

Asser, Bishop of Sherborne. Alfred the Great,
Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, trans.
by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge. Harmondsworth, England and New
York: Penguin Books, 1983.

Bogdanor, Vernon. The Monarchy and the Constitution.
Oxford: Clarendon Press and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Campbell, James and Erich John, and Patrick Wormald. The
Anglo-Saxons. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982.